TRA DISCIPLINAMENTO SOCIALE ED EDUCAZIONE ALLA CITTADINANZA

Using a novel and exhaustive approach, this volume draws upon numerous historical documents to analyse the features (programmes, contents, timetables, etc.) and, above all, the purposes, of teaching The Rights and Duties of Citizens following the unification of Italy (1861). The subject was comprehensively introduced into the Italian school system to instill among the new generations the value of Italian citizenship and the feeling of being part of the newly unified nation. As the authors demonstrate at the end of their complex and original analysis, the teaching of this subject in Italian schools during the first 40 years after the Unification of Italy (1861-1900) was destined to underline the considerable gap between ideal citizenship, based on the rights and duties ensured by articles 24-32 of the Statuto Albertino, and real citizenship, the expression of a more all-embracing idea of society – as well as of country – that the upper class wanted to achieve. This occurred because instruction was inevitably influenced by the ideologies and political orientations tied to the oligarchic structure of the newly unified country. In reality, the introduction of this subject was not intended to inform citizens of their right and duties in order to enable them to assume their individual responsibilities as citizens. Rather, it aimed to impart a system of rules and to ethically and legally justify both the strictly classist organisation of society and the value system of the bourgeoisie.

About the Authors
Anna Ascenzi is a full professor of children’s literature at the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism at the University of Macerata, where she is the director of the Centre for Documentation and Research on the History of Schoolbooks and Children's Literature and the “Paolo e Ornella Ricca” School Museum. She has published numerous books and contributions on the history of education and textbooks, on the process of building the identity of a nation and citizenship between the 19^th and 20^th centuries, and on the history of children’s literature after the Italian unification.

Roberto Sani (Rome,1958) is a full professor of History of Education at the Department of Education, Cultural Heritage and Tourism at the University of Macerata, where he is the director of the Centre for Studies and Documentation on the History of the University. He founded and directs the international scientific journal History of Education & Children’s Literature (HECL). He has published numerous books, papers and articles on the history of education and educational institutions in the modern and contemporary periods, as well as on Italian educational policy between the 19th and 20th centuries.